Gladiator
by Fallen Vanguard
Summary: "I didn't think it would change me, but it did. I woke up a trainer, lived and fought as a gladiator, and came out as...well, you tell me. What am I now?" In the virtual region of Linus, where the outcome of a battle can mean life or death, one man strives to become the champion.
1. Chapter 1: Darkness

There were many times in my life that I had felt darkness cover me. Most of them were soothing moments of napping in the shade or sleeping in my bedroom, but the more recent ones were far more terrifying; wandering through a cave filled with hungry pokemon, being dragged to the bottom of the ocean by malicious jellicent. I didn't know what to make of this darkness because of that. Mixed feelings, comfort and fear.

I was relieved when all it took was opening my eyes to remove the darkness and sighed when I realized I was just in my hospital bed.

In front of me was a white wall with a plasma screen tv on it. Unova's channel five news was playing softly and the mature but admittedly attractive female anchor was telling a story. It'd been months, too many months, since I was last able to watch the news. Even from a hospital bed the relief was powerful; knowing that I was in a familiar world once again. I'd been recuperating for two months but everyday the relief was the same.

"I'd much prefer it if he was left to rest," that deep and powerful voice could only belong to one person. I turned my head to the left to look out the transparent screen doors of my hospital room and saw a tall dark skinned man in a black suit standing in front of a short fair skinned woman. The man, of course, was my father.

"You don't understand, sir," the woman insisted with a calm but firm voice, "We were invited by him,"

My father didn't flinch, maintaining his composure as he always did, but he did stay silent for a moment. He turned to look at me and I nodded in confirmation; having heard the last bit of the conversation. The reluctance was clear on his face yet I knew he would give in. Any father would. If their son was missing for a year and managed to return alive most of their son's wishes would be fulfilled no matter the father's personal wishes.

So my father stepped aside and the woman walked in. She also wore a suit, with a black skirt rather than black pants, which I happily noted. She had a regal beauty to her and, in truth, it was part of the reason why I had called her to come in that day. The bigger reason was that she was honest, professional, and genuinely interested as to where I had been and what I had lived through.

If anyone could get the truth of my story out there, it was her.

"Good morning Vincent," the blonde said, taking a seat on a chair across from my bed while I shamelessly admired her blonde hair that was tied in a loose bun. This was for a different reason than usual, though. In the past year blonde hair had become a symbol of relief for me, even more so than standard television was in the present.

"Good morning Amy," Being my senior she probably preferred it if I had called her "Ms". I had assured her ever since she first questioned me that she would never go by that name if I was the one speaking to her. Thus I ignored her frown and continued on, "You look lovely today. I assume I look much better as well?"

No blush or flinch, just a small smile and a courteous nod, "You do. The recovery clearly went well, no wonder you're being released today,"

"Thank you," I replied with a smile of my own, "So ask away. I'm assuming you want to start at the beginning,"

"I do," Amy fished around in her suit pockets until she pulled out a notepad and a pencil. As per my request there would be no filming of this interview, but Amy didn't seem bothered by the fact she would be writing instead, "My first question is obvious then: how was it you entered Linus?"

"That's not the beginning," I said with a shake of my head. Amy raised an eyebrow so I continued, "That wasn't the beginning for me, anyway. At the beginning I couldn't remember how I wound up trapped there, nobody in there could. The beginning was just darkness, with no memories of who I was, where I was, etc."

"Then perhaps you'd like to start. Tell your whole story. I'll save most of my questions for the end, assuming you don't answer them for me," Amy explained with a professional tone. I was happy with that arrangement, so I nodded.

"It'd probably be for the best…very well, I'll start at the beginning,"

* * *

**This fic is more than half completed, but I'm not quite sure I want to upload it. I will not ask for reviews, faves, alerts, or whatever, but this fic's reception is what will determine whether I upload or not. Good reception and it stays, bad/no reception and I'll remove it in favour of the other fic I worked on during NaNo.**


	2. Chapter 2: Log In

The first thing I did when I came to my senses was groan. In pain. My entire body throbbed with some sort of achy agony as I stretched instinctively, like I always did when I woke up. I laid there for a moment before I blinked my eyes open, going from darkness to…darkness.

"What the hell?" I grumbled to myself. I rubbed my eyes with my hands and looked around again, but, there was still just blackness. I couldn't see a thing, making it even worse than my room when I had the blinds closed. With a small grunt of pain I forced myself in a seated position and looked down at the ground I sat upon. It was as black as the rest of my surroundings.

"Where am I?" I asked myself quietly as I forced myself to stand up. There was darkness all around me still, even when I took a few paces ahead. Oddly enough I was in pajamas, loose black pants and a matching shirt, which was what I was last wearing when I went to bed.

Despite how odd it all was I still managed to keep myself relaxed and take a small breath, "All right, think back, what was I last doing…?"

Blank. That was when things got scary, when I couldn't remember anything. All I remembered was going to sleep, but I couldn't remember where I went to sleep. I couldn't remember where my house was or if I even had one, where my home was, or what region I lived in. If I had parents I couldn't remember them or what they looked like, the same went for anybody I knew…if I knew anybody…no, I had to know somebody!

"What the hell!" I shouted out, turning around frantically as I looked for even a crack of light in the surrounding darkness. "Where am I? Who…" Who was I? Along with nearly all my other memories my name was gone too. What the hell could have happened that made me forget-

"Name: Vincent,"

I got a reply. A feminine but monotone voice echoed throughout the darkness to relay my name to me. I winced and grabbed my head with my hands, a jolt of pain surging across my mind, but when it subsided I realized that the voice was right. My name was Vincent, but…no last name went with it.

"Age: 19. Home: Black City, Unova. Occupation: Trainer. Relatives: Mother, Father, Brother, Sister,"

The voice was right again. Not only that, but with each word it spoke more and more of my memories returned to me. My older sister Veronica and my big brother Josh, I remembered them. My mother and father, I could remember them too. Still no family name but I could remember my family, and that alone made me laugh with relief.

"Applicant Number: hundred thousand and fifty-three,"

My laughter subsided as I searched my mind. That last phrase didn't jolt my mind at all, no memories rushing back at me. I had no clue what the voice was talking about…and I still had no clue who the voice was.

"Hey, thanks for the mental boost, I guess…" I grumbled a bit awkwardly, unsure how to address the voice that spoke to me through the darkness, "But who the hell are you? And where am I?"

"Scanning,"

Light was my response. Too much light. White blasted through the darkness so strongly I nearly cried out before I brought my hands to my eyes. The light rapidly shifted from white to green, from green to red, from red to blue, and through all manners of colour. Eventually the light settled on yellow and flashed before everything returned to blackness.

"Element synergized. Type: Electric. Starting Pokémon chosen. Loading…"

"Okay, seriously, what the hell are you talking about!? Loading what!?" I finally snapped, shouting out at the blackness in anger. I wasn't actually angry, though. The quiver in my voice and tremble in my legs let me know what I really felt.

Fear.

"Final Stage: Pick a username"

What? "You know my name, it's Vincent!" I cried out again. When a light blue screen appeared before me though I practically jumped back. Cautiously but curiously I looked at the screen and focused my eyes. It was translucent but had bold white lettering that read "Name?" With a bunch of blank underscores beneath the question.

I looked to the left of the question and saw that about a third of the screen was a letter pad, like you'd see on an iPad or something.

"Okay…what the hell. Is this some sort of computer game?" I think that even back then I knew that couldn't be right. I knew it was much more than a game. No game wiped your memories only to restore most of them, or trapped you in total blackness for the first part.

I waited several minutes and found that literally nothing happened, the screen still before me ready to accept what I assumed would be a screen name. Even if it wasn't I game I was clearly inside of something virtual or digital. So, with a finger, I tapped at the letter pad until the name was complete and then proceeded to hit done.

As soon as I did the screen disappeared with a click and the voice spoke up once more, "Username available. Accepted. Welcome: Red,"

I figured if I was going to be stuck in some sort of virtual…thing…that I didn't want to be wandering around with some lame made up name like "Sethera" or some nerdy self-title like, I don't know… "FallenVanguard." So I picked my favorite colour.

I didn't have much time to think about more, though, for I suddenly felt my body…shift, like it was moved really swiftly. I shut my eyes as colour shot past me and when I opened them it was clear that I had been moved or teleported.

"Holy crap…" I had no idea how, but I was in a coliseum. It was massive, made of stone, and designed similarly to the old ones in that Orre region nobody talked about. All around me were rows of fans, each cheering and shouting over each other so loudly that not one real word made it through. It was all just noise. The sky above me was…odd. It was a light blue but it was wavy, and there was some misdirected light seemingly above it. Felt like the entire coliseum was underneath the sea.

"Uh…h-hey, you…uh, do you know what's going on? Who are you!"

I glanced across from me and saw that there someone standing across from me, on the other side of the dirt arena. It was a fair-skinned boy, maybe a year or two younger than me, with dark hair dressed in the same pajamas as I was. His whole body trembled with fear and his voice got more panicked with each word he spoke.

Odds were I didn't look much better. Still, I held my hands up as calmly as I could. While he probably thought I was to blame for whatever was happening I could tell immediately it wasn't him.

"I'm Vin…well, I guess I'm Red," I managed to correct myself, remembering the stupid screen name I picked. The other boy gave a slow nod and started to relax but his eyes remained trained on me, "I don't know what's going on but I swear I had nothing to do with it,"

"Th-then why are you here? Why are WE here?"

"I don't know," I had to grit my teeth, the boy's suspicions already starting to get to me. There was a chance the two of us could figure it out if we bothered to think together but he needed to relax in order-

"Preliminary Round. Red vs Omni-Wiz," Omni-Wiz? See, that was why I stuck with a simple name like…wait, Preliminary Round? "Five minutes on the clock. Trainers, release your Pokémon!" The monotone voice blared out as the crowd practically exploded with cheers and eager roars.

Before I could even question the voice this time a red and white ball appeared in my right hand. As I looked at the ball, ignoring the startled screeches from "Omni-Wiz", a blue screen much like the one that asked me to type in a name appeared. It was differently shaped, however, and didn't ask me anything. Instead, it gave me information on the Pokémon that was inside it.

While I was familiar with the Pokémon I knew that I did not own a Pokémon of its specie.

"Elekid. Type: Electric. Level: Ten. Gender: Male. Moves: Quick Attack, Leer, Thundershock…" That was what the screen told me. So my Pokémon was elekid, an electric type. It must have been determined by that stupid scan that nearly blinded me.

"What the hell is going on?" Omni-Wiz cried out, staring at his own pokeball. When I looked up at him I could see that there was a blue screen in front of his pokeball too, but there was no way I could read what it said from the distance between us, which was roughly twenty feet.

"Five minutes on the clock. Battle, start!" It was then that I noticed a black screen to my left. It hovered over the crowd and displayed my screen name across from Omni-Wiz's, a blank box beneath my name and one beneath his. It heavily resembled a standard battle screen from official tournaments or gym battles.

I knew deep down I didn't trust this entire thing, or this voice. It knew who I was and seemed to be in charge of the whole…thing, whatever it was. So there was no way I _wanted_ to battle. At the same time I didn't want to find out what happened when the five minutes ran out.

So, despite the powerful thumping of my heart and the frightened and confused cries of Omni-Wiz, I tossed the pokeball out before me.

Sure enough, just like in real life, there was a flash of white light as a short Pokémon with yellow fur and black stripes appeared before me. It had horns similar to the prongs of a cord that plugged into wall ports, which made it perfectly match the image of elekid that was displayed on the blue screen in front of my pokeball.

"Wait, what are you doing? I'm not battling you! This is stupid!"

"Calm down already!" I finally snapped, Elekid shooting me a glance over its shoulder. "Think! We have less than five minutes to battle. One of us wins, the other loses, and then maybe we'll figure out what the hell is going on!"

My anger managed to get through Omni-Wiz, at least a bit, and after a few more seconds he gave a nod and tossed his pokeball before him. Another pop, another flash, but this time a dark blue Pokémon with what looked like a concave face appeared, its feet and horn a deep red.

"A roggenrola?" I asked myself aloud. Roggenrola was a rock-type that was common in my home region of Unova but rare anywhere else. Its rock typing meant that Quick Attack would do very little against it but it wouldn't take Thundershock as well.

The rush of my blood was different from the anxiety and fear I had experienced prior to that moment. The memories of the battles I had, which weren't many but more than enough to grasp the basics, were at the back of my mind as instinct began to take over. I didn't know about Omni-Wiz, but I at least had battle experience.

"Elekid, use Thundershock!" The battle had started over thirty seconds ago, the time on the black screen read "4:21" and counting, so I wasn't about to wait for Omni-Wiz to start the battle.

The boy jumped, not expecting the attack while Elekid whirled his long arms, briefly charging some yellow electricity between his horns before launching an arc of lightning at Roggenrola. There was a garbled cry of pain from the rock type as the Thundershock pushed it back.

I heard a beeping sound from the black screen and glanced at it quickly. The boxes beneath my name and Omni-Wiz's name had been filled with, essentially, mug shots of Elekid and Roggenrola respectively. Just above the boxes but still beneath the names were green bars, and Roggenrola's green bar depleted by about a third.

It was like health bars from a video game, and I was surprised to see that the same green bar had appeared over Roggenrola's head, though it faded a few seconds later. So it would be clear to both myself and Omni-Wiz exactly how much more damage our Pokémon could take? That explained the odd level system this world seemed to have…it was so different from home.

"Uh, Roggenrola, you need to use um…Headbutt?" And it just became clear that Omni-Wiz was _not_ a battler. Roggenrola shook off the pain from Thundershock and hurled itself head first at Elekid, but despite how fast Roggenrola moved it was still a slow Pokémon. Direct physical moves were powerful with it, but it had a lack of speed which meant they had to be used properly.

"Use Quick Attack to dodge it!" I commanded.

"Elekid!" Elekid cried out, leaping over Roggenrola in a blur of yellow and black. The rock type skidded to a halt, seemingly about as confused by what happened as Omni-Wiz was. The boy shot me a glare before he shouted at me once again.

"D-damn it, let me hit you!" …Yeah, not going to happen.

"Thundershock again!"

"Dodge it Roggenrola!" Also not going to happen. Omni-Wiz still hadn't figured out that Roggenrola was just too slow to keep up with Elekid, so it obviously wouldn't be able to out-run electricity. The rock type did try though, but it was knocked over on its side with another cry of pain when the yellow electricity connected with its side. The bar over its head depleted by about another third and went from green, to orange, to red.

"Two minutes remaining," Damn, that much time went by? I needed to end it quickly.

"Elekid use Thundershock again!"

"N-no! Roggenrola uh, um…" Omni-Wiz had nothing and could only cringe when Elekid shocked his Pokémon once again, completely depleting the health bar that appeared over its head this time. I looked up at the black board and saw the time stop at "1:56". The box that had Roggenrola's picture faded out while Elekid's flashed and grew the words "WINNER!" appearing over its head in gold.

"Roggenrola has lost, Elekid is the winner. Congratulations, Red!" the voice blared out as the crowd cheered. I looked around, a small sense of pride swelling within me as the praise clearly switched from random noise to "Red!" or "Yay Red!" or "We love you, Red!"

There were more important things at hand though, so I turned away from the crowd to face Omni-Wiz once again, "Good battle, but you should have attacked from a-"

"Wh-what's happening to my Pokémon?" Omni-Wiz looked terrified, more so than usual, and he stared straight at his Roggenrola. I followed his gaze and felt a small shock of fear shoot through me. Roggenrola was still unconscious and limp on the ground, which was normal, but his body was slowly crumbling away into blue numbers and blocks. It was like watching someone get "derezzed" in Tron.

The whole place was like a video game though, so I guess it made sense that things were deleted when they died…

Died…no, that couldn't be…

Omni-Wiz screamed out again and I looked at him, that twinge of fear growing to full on terror. Much like Roggenrola Omni-Wiz's body was fading away. His arm was already gone and his leg was disappearing as well. He looked around in complete panic, hyper ventilating and sweating like crazy while he did so.

"H-h-help me…someone help me! I don't know what's happening! Help, please, HELP!"

"H-hey! He needs help!" I couldn't keep the tremble out of my voice as I whirled to face the crowd. They were still cheering the same cheers, bobbing up and down as they waved at me and hollered. They wouldn't do anything else. Could they do anything else? It was like they were programmed to just cheer for the victor..

NPCs. They weren't real people, that should have been obvious. They were like NPCs, non-player/non-playable characters. They were controlled by the computer and had a set limit of functions and conversation options. Like enemies, just peaceful and usually a bit helpful.

"R-Red! Please, R-" I turned back around to Omni-Wiz, but it was in vain. He and his Roggenrola were gone when I turned to face him.

Surely he couldn't have died. Maybe he just lost so he got logged out or reset back the beginning, right? But this arena, the coliseum, _was_ the beginning. All that came before it was that horrible darkness.

"I…did I kill him?"

"Ele, kid kid," I glanced down and saw that Elekid stood before me now, his arms crossed. If he had lost would he had faded away too? Would I have faded away?

"Elekid…" As usual I was interrupted before I could say anything else as I felt my body shift again. This time there was no rush of colour but a simple flash of bright blue light. I blinked off the flash and saw that Elekid was still with me, a bar over his head. It wasn't his green health bar this time, but rather a thinner bar that filled up to about half with blue. The end of the bar read "EXP" in white lettering.

I stared at Elekid for a moment before I finally had it. The fear, the confusion, and the anger was just too much to bear.

"Okay, I want answers! What the hell is happening! Where am I? Where is Omni-Wiz? Someone tell me!"

Silence, that's all there was. For what felt like hours. However I did get a reply eventually when a blue screen appeared over Elekid's head. I walked over to the Pokémon with haste and looked at the screen.

"Congratulations for surviving, Red! Would you like to nickname your new Pokémon?"

* * *

**Okay, so I ended it on a somewhat lighter note, but I couldn't help myself! Anyway, if you figured some stuff out from the prologue, have played Fate/Extra, or read/watched Sword Art Online it's pretty obvious what the situation is. HOWEVER, aside from the prologue, you don't have to know anything about those things to understand and enjoy this fic.**

**What do you guys think so far? Like Red and his starter? Think the concept is cool? Hate the story? Hate me? …Got milk? Let me know!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Situation

**Merry Christmas/Whatever to you all!**

* * *

I could only stare in shock at the screen that resembled the first naming screen. It asked me to name my Elekid, almost as a slap in the face considering the freak out I had mere seconds before. Still I figured that I may as well type a name in, so I tapped "Yes" and then tapped out "Thor". I didn't care about originality at the moment, all I wanted were quick answers.

The screen asked if I was sure, much to my chagrin, and I hastily tapped the "Yes" option. The screen finally disappeared and Elekid looked up at me.

"Loading…" The voice echoed throughout the familiar darkness. I really hoped I didn't have to get locked in the darkness again. The first time was horrible, this time was stressful. Even when I was at the coliseum I could at least see things. Those things made little to no sense and some of them scared me to my core, but, it was better than seeing nothing.

Thankfully the wait for the loading wasn't long and, with one more flash of blue, I found myself in the middle of…a city?

And I wasn't alone.

There were already some other people around me, each dressed in plain pajama outfits like I was, when I started to look around the city square I was in. A lot of people. Easily hundreds, maybe even thousands. I was honestly surprised at the amount of people who managed to fit in the square and yet there was still room for more.

Which was good, because some more followed. A lot more. I couldn't even begin to count how many people there were, but it was clear were all being teleported in some order. The first person to appear after me was to my right, the next was to their right, and so forth until the row ended and a new one began behind us.

Once all the teleporting was done there was silence. People had, like myself, probably asked plenty of questions to that monotone voice before. They had all learned to just wait, the answers would come eventually. I didn't like it but I was clever enough to recognize that it was what I had to do.

"Twenty five thousand," I nearly jolted at this voice. It wasn't the same or monotonous, but still feminine. Everyone turned to a skyscraper to their left and saw a shockingly large black screen attached to the side of the sky scraper. On it was a face, an admittedly attractive one, that belonged to a woman. She was pale, too pale actually, and had raven hair. Her eyes were stone grey.

"Out of the fifty thousand trainers that were selected only you twenty-five thousand made it through the preliminary rounds to enter New Castelia city,"

I knew the city was familiar. In fact, it was almost an exact replica of the massive port and business city that was Castelia City in Unova. Black City was far more advanced and far richer, but Castelia was much, much larger. And it did have a square that could fit thousands of people in it, which explained the size.

"But you wouldn't see the awe and excitement in that. You have questions, and through your patience and efforts, you will be rewarded with answers,"

"About damned time!" One older man a few rows ahead of me shouted. There were rumbles and grunts of agreement but nobody really spoke with anyone. We didn't know anyone that was here, and if only the winners made it to this city then I doubted that losers, like Omni-Wiz, were present.

"You are in New Castelia city, one of the major cities of Linus, modeled after the real Castelia city," the woman began, "More importantly you are in Linus. A virtual region filled with Pokémon, npcs, and life. It's your new home,"

Wait, what? The crowd started up again but the woman didn't let the noise grow too loud before continuing.

"How you arrived is unimportant. Are you in your real bodies? No, you are in avatars resembling your real bodies. Your real bodies are safe, under careful protection, but they will not be found by your families or the police,"

That was…only slightly relieving. The fact that she brought police into it almost instantly gave me the feeling that this was part of something massively illegal. Involving fifty thousand people.

"You will not wake up from Linus. When you go to sleep, you will wake up exactly where you fell asleep. There is no log off button, there is no signing out, and there is no pulling off of a virtual reality helmet. You all live here until either two conditions are met,"

"The first: become the Champion. When someone makes it clear through the Linus region, defeats all 12 gym leaders, wins the yearly league tournament, and takes on the elite four and defeats the Champion, you will all be logged out from the Linus region,"

This was nuts! Going through a regular gym challenge with only eight gyms, not counting defeating the elite four, took a year at the shortest, and the person to accomplish that was some prodigy from Kanto! The worst part was that it eliminated basic teamwork. We could try to work together to get all the badges, but that tournament would pit us against each other to decide who got the honor of challenging the Elite Four. It was like real life.

And how would they keep our bodies alive for a year, maybe two years? Just where were our bodies being stored?

"So it's simple: grow strong. Raise your Pokémon through battle like you would in real life or in a simulator, take advantage of the shops and items throughout Linus, and become the Champion!" The way she spoke…she was almost chipper, excited. We were trapped away from our families, friends, and lives for some stupid game and the bitch explaining it all was just fine with that?

"Oh, a few last things!" The woman began, once again cutting off the crowd, "Be sure to check your inventory. Each one of you starts with three thousand poke, and each of you has a map. Also check your options and help options, there's a few free hints in there too,"

"Convenient," I muttered to myself, crossing my arms. It was then that I noticed that Thor had been forcibly returned to his pokeball when I arrived, the ball itself now attached to a belt on my waist.

"And finally, don't lose a battle. Any battle. If your Pokémon run out of health they die. And if you run out of Pokémon, you die,"

My blood froze in my veins. She said it so casually, with that chipper tone…there was no way it could be true. When Omni-Wiz disappeared, there was simply no way he could have died.

The crowd went into a frenzy.

"Bullshit! You expect us to buy that! If we lose, we probably get logged out and get to go home!" Someone in the crowd called out. The woman only smiled at us all through the screen, though.

"Are you willing to risk it?"

The crowd died down into silence. Sure, maybe it was true that we _wouldn't_ die. But was it worth the risk? If we died when we lost, why the hell would we risk losing? I mean, those other fifty thousand…they didn't come back. Where did they go? Home? Or…

"Each and every one of you has something to live for back home, and I assure you that losing a battle will not allow you to go home. You will die, just like your Pokémon,"

Wait…the Pokémon. Are they real too? Are they pokemon trapped in this world like we are and not just data? How could that be possible, what with the rankings and everything? They had hp for crying out loud!

"It is now nine thirty a.m., the first day of the first month of the first year of your new lives in Linus," the woman went on while the crowd remained shocked to silence. "How many days will it take you all to be free? You're the judges of that. Good luck, and battle well,"

The face disappeared from the screen, the time replacing it in big white numbers. There was silence, but I immediately ran from the square. I was barefoot, and felt the roughness of the cement beneath my feet, but I didn't care. With the panic I felt in my body I knew exactly what was going to happen.

Everyone panicked. Screams, shouts, cries. All of these filled the air of New Castelia. I kept my mouth shut as I turned down a street, not having a clue about where I was going, but my vision was blurred with tears. I don't know if they were tears of sadness or fear, but I couldn't be bothered to think about what my tears were, how I was crying in a virtual world, or why I was crying.

I needed to get away from everyone and just think.

* * *

**Year 1, Day 1**

**Population: 25,000**

**Shorter chapter, much shorter, but I didn't want the explanation to go on forever. **

**Yet there are still so many questions! Why are they doing this? WHO is doing this? Who was that woman? Where are their bodies? Just what is Linus, and how big could the virtual region possibly be? Keep on reading and you're sure to find out.**

**Make sure to ask any questions through review, leave behind comments or even some suggestions. Note these chapters are written ahead of time, so I can only make so many adjustments, but I will make sure to make these adjustments all the same.**


	4. Chapter 4: Lessons in Hell

The first ten days were the worst. Plenty of terrible things happened during the Linus "project" or Linus "incident", but nothing, _nothing_, was worse than the first ten days.

* * *

**Year 1, Day 10**

**Population: 13,110**

Route 1 was the first route available in Linus. It was on the outskirts of New Castelia City and consisted of some tall grass and a few trees along a dirt path that led to a thick forest. One didn't have to follow the path, but the forest that surrounded the route on all sides was unmarked on the Linus maps available for purchase in marts. And since New Castelia was backed by the sea, following Route 1 was really the only option.

So it was there, on the outskirts of New Castelia and off the dirt path that ran through Route 1, I sat. It was around six p.m, so the sun had begun to sink down beneath the horizon. The air was still fairly warm though, which made sense as it was spring in Linus.

Along Route 1 there were plenty of Pokémon to catch, including pidgey and patrat, but none of them interested me. They were better off used as training fodder for Thor anyway, not worth wasting time, pokeballs, and money on. I had heard a rumor that different Pokémon would seem closer to nighttime, so I decided to wait. Unfortunately, during this wait, there was nothing to do but think.

And all I could think about was how, in days, twelve thousand people died.

Of course some of them claimed they were going home and that they would bust us out and prove us wrong. At least five thousand of them must have done just that, killed themselves by going on buildings and jumping, getting strangers to kill their Pokémon in battle for free experience and money, or making their on Pokémon kill them.

It'd been ten days, and there was no sign of any of us being "busted out".

The other seven thousand died in a number of ways. Some died by being poor battlers and losing to wild Pokémon. Some challenged each other to a battle not believing the loser would die and when someone lost, well, they died. Others ran for Treevine Forest past Route 1 and either died on the way there or in the forest. The rest, well, even I didn't know.

All that mattered was that almost half of us had died within ten days.

It was depressing and frightening. The more of us there were the higher chance that one of us would actually be able to beat the champion. At the same time, the more of us there were, the more were going to die being left by those who would be strong enough to take on the champion. At the time pretty much everyone had at least a small desire to help one another, so that realization was scary.

People started grouping up as a result. There would be groups of six or seven, some with many more and others with less, marching out to Route 1 and training together, watching each other's backs for when another Pokémon lunging out of the grass to attack your back. They shared money and items, but their progress was slow since they needed to keep up to each other's level.

One could always lie. At that time there was no way of being able to know the level of another trainer's Pokémon unless they told you.

I looked down at my red and black shoes that I had purchased on Day 1. The stores had plenty of outfits, thousands even, but a lot of people wound up wearing the same clothes due to tastes and prices. Right now, everyone was fairly poor, the big money coming from winning against another trainer, but that meant killing them in most cases, whereas other ways to make money were gambling (yes, New Castelia had a casino), or defeating wild Pokémon. Gambling was risky though and wild Pokémon didn't offer much.

I, myself, only bothered to buy the black and red shoes and replace my black pajamas with black slacks and a red t-shirt. When I had more money I'd bother with a better outfit.

"Hey," I heaved a sigh when I heard the grunt and glanced over to my right. There was a tall and burly man dressed in a green long-sleeved shirt, white pants, and brown boots. His skin was dark, like mine, but darker still.

"What?" I asked the man curtly, Thor at my side glaring at the man. The dark-skinned man glanced at my elekid and took a pokeball off of his belt.

"I'm challenging you to a battle,"

This had to be the thing I hated the most about Linus, aside from the whole death situation in general. There was _nothing_ to stop a battle from happening unless one was inside of a city. In a city it was possible to decline, and the Linus rules would render it impossible for the challenger to attack you if you did decline. However, outside the city, one could only walk away or actually battle. Walking away worked for those that didn't want to threaten or risk killing you, but others…

"Come on out, Kingsley," Will just release their Pokémon and attack you until you battle or die.

I stared, dumbstruck, at the onix that appeared from the pokeball. I had noticed a pattern with starting Pokémon was that nobody got a legendary or a Pokémon that couldn't evolve. This meant nothing like Hydreigon, a final evolution of a three-part chain, or even zangoose, a Pokémon that was fully evolved because it doesn't evolve from anything. To me, something like onix was unfair to give as a starter, but it did evolve once into steelix and didn't evolve from anything.

"Just go away," I groaned. Thor himself whirled his arms and sparked, eager to battle the onix, but there was no way he was going to win. He still had the same moves as day one, only he learned Thunder Wave on day eight. Nothing he had would work well against an onix.

"Hell no. I need the money for potions and antidotes. Some people are starting to head out to Treevine forest and I want to get the hell out of New Castelia," The man grunted. I glanced at the light blue screen that popped up in front of me that read "Axel5 wants to battle"

I let out a small sight, his name wasn't bad enough to make fun of, but reluctantly stood up. He wasn't going to go away unless I battle and I knew a trick to keep Thor alive. It was going to cost me half the money in my wallet, but I had purchased everything I needed anyway.

"Let's go then," Axel had the decency to back up to about fifteen feet, which his onix could cover without even moving, but it gave me some time to ready myself.

"Kingsley, use Tackle!" The onix let out a roar as it shot forward towards Thor, who stood in front of me. Both Thor and I jumped to the side, the air rushing past us from the sheer force of the onix's movement.

"Thor, Quick Attack!" On my command Thor charged at Kingsley with so much speed he became a blur, but he literally bounced off the onix's body when he made impact. Thor took no damage, but the green bar that appeared over Kingsley's head barely depleted at all. As I had thought Quick Attack wouldn't do a thing, and onix's ground typing made it so that Thor's electric moves would be useless as well. It looked like I was going to be out a lot of money.

"All right Kingsley, this time…" Axel stopped as I recalled Thor into his pokeball. A screen popped up in front of both Axel and I that read "Red has forfeited".

"You sure, kid?"

"Positive," I said as a second screen popped up. This one read "5050 poke" but soon changed to "2525 poke" as half my money was instantly transferred to Axel. The man nodded at his screen before he recalled Kingsley to its pokeball.

"You made the right call boy," Though he said something like that I was surprised at the sheer lack of arrogance he held in his tone. He wasn't rubbing my loss in his face or even praising himself, but rather genuinely complimenting me. I didn't know if that was better or worse but I decided to nod and take the compliment.

"Thanks, I guess. Is that all?"

"Yep, maybe we'll see each other again…" Axel said with a slight chuckle as he turned away. I snorted but kept my mouth shut. The odds were that we wouldn't meet again. He could wind up dying later today, or I could. Hell maybe both of us would die.

"You know…I seriously am glad you didn't let me hurt your Pokémon," I frowned a bit as Axel turned back to me, running a hand through his afro. "I was a teacher back home. One of my students had an elekid like yours and, well, just would have felt wrong to kill it,"

"Oh?" I was a bit interested, but I was more content that talking could kill the time until some of the nighttime Pokémon came out. I knew hoothoot was one of them but there could be others, too.

"Yeah. I teach at Rustboro Academy, with Roxanne,"

"Roxanne! THE Roxanne?" Almost immediately I was ashamed at my reaction. Roxanne and…almost every other famous female trainer was rather high up on my "Hot List". It turned out that no matter where I was or what situation I was in there would still be a bit of pervert in me.

Axel merely chuckled, thankfully, and nodded his head, "The gym leader, yes. She's everybody's favourite in Rustboro and I guess an icon no matter where you go," After this Axel crossed his arms while I was shaking the blush off my face, "Where are you from, anyway?"

"Oh…Black City, Unova," I didn't have a problem responding truthfully. Black City was very big and Axel was from Hoenn. There was almost no way he'd know about me or my family, especially without knowing my name.

"Black City, that the only where Black Tower was built?"

"Recently, yeah," I said with a bit of a chuckle. There was nothing funny about the conversation, but, it was just funny to me how relaxing a casual conversation could be. It'd only been ten days but they felt like a year already. "About a year ago,"

"Interesting…oh, that reminds me. A couple of guys I teamed up with briefly got to talking about the Linus calender. One of them bought it, and it turns out Linus years are only one hundred and fifty-one days," Now _that_ was interesting.

"Really?" Then, assuming, seasons were factored into Linus, it would be…

"Yep. The seasons change every thirty-seven days. It's uneven that way, and means that seasons will start and end at different dates every year," Thirty seven days. That meant there were twenty-seven days left of spring.

"Thanks for the information," I said as I stood up. The sun was gone by that point and the darkness of night was practically upon us. The nighttime Pokémon would be stirring and I was eager to try to catch one of those.

"You heading off somewhere?" Axel asked as I started to walk over to the dirt path.

"Yeah, I've got a couple of things to do before I try passing through Treevine forest,"

"Mm. Well, I hope I see you again Red…and for pity's sake boy, don't sit around with your Pokémon out! It lets people know whether they have a type advantage over you or not!" Wait…he may have needed the money, but the only real reason Axel battled _me_ was because he _knew_ he could win? I turned back to look at him and saw him holding his chest and laughing.

Yeah, hopefully we would meet again. I definitely had to get him back for that. It was good advice overall and I managed to learn the lesson without dying, but somehow I had to get him back for that.

"Whatever old man," I called out to him before I looked ahead and strode across the dirt path and into the grass. Pokémon weren't actively lurking around the grass like in real life and they weren't limited to living in the tall grass. So long as you aren't in a city Pokémon can appear anywhere at any time, but areas like patches of tall grass had a higher chance of running into Pokémon.

And sure enough, with a dim blue flash, a green Pokémon with six yellow legs appeared in front of me. It narrowed its large black eyes at me almost immediately and I pulled I opened up my inventory screen. I swiftly scrolled to the bottom and tapped a button labeled "Pokedex 1.0"

That had been my greatest investment, though it required far too much grinding to work my money back up. For five thousand poke one could buy a basic Pokedex from the store. It would list information on Pokémon scanned with it, label where they could be caught, and show battle info on wild Pokémon.

The Pokedex appeared in my hand and I held it up to scan the spinarak, which remained stationary but angry. I skipped the general information that popped up and jumped straight to the battle information. Spinarak was level twelve, six levels lower than Thor was, and had the moves Poison Sting, String Shot, Scary Face, and Leech Life.

Not amazing, but, it was better than nothing.

"Thor, use Thundershock," I commanded upon releasing my elekid. Thor whirled his arms as soon as he appeared and unleashed an arc of golden electricity which struck the spinarak hard…

Too hard.

The words "Critical Hit!" appeared in gold lettering while spinarak was blasted about five feet back. The green bar over its head depleted completely and, sure enough, it crumbled away. The only way to catch a Pokémon in Linus was to throw a pokeball while the Pokémon still had hp. The lower the hp the more likely one was to catch it. However, if you kill it, you miss your chance.

"Thor…eh, it's not your fault," I said with a sigh as I knelt down to my elekid. "I really should have gone for Thunderwave and Quick Attack, huh?

"Kid, elekid!" Thor cried out loudly as he pounded his chest twice.

I thought was going to be a long night. I was right.

* * *

**So there were a lot more explanations, but some conversation and two very brief battles. As usual I've gotta ask for your thoughts. The story is already written but I can always alter some things or throw in some extras based on opinions and reviews!**

**Ah, and don't worry. The action scenes will get better/longer and the protagonist roster will grow eventually. **


	5. Chapter 5: Vanguard

Treevine Forest. The first true hurdle in all of Linus. Considering how early on it was in the game it should have been a cake walk for the thirteen thousand people who remained.

It took one thousand more from us.

* * *

**Year 1, Day 12**

**Population: 12, 321**

* * *

"Here you are sir, your pokemon are fully healed," It was remarkably realistic, both the NPC nurse and the way pokemon were healed. Rather than be treated like humans at a hospital, you simply handed your pokeballs over, the set it on some machine, and in five seconds your pokemon were back to full hp. Well, I suppose the latter wasn't that realistic,

"Thank you," I know the NPC wouldn't care whether I said thank you or not when I took my pokeballs back but I swear they gave the tiniest of smiles when I did. The nurse nodded, her mouth quivering a bit as if to give me that brief smile, but her attention went immediately to the next trainer in line.

I walked away from the marble counter and strode across the front room of the Pokémon Center and exited out the front door. I wasn't entirely sure what to do next, but, Thor had hit level twenty-one and even learned a new move while I had attempted to catch another pokemon the night before. No success, I decided after my initial failure with the spinarak that they wouldn't make for a good enough addition. Dangerous as it was my plan was to trek through Treevine Forest, just Thor and I.

"Excuse me?" I stopped and glanced over my shoulder to see a man in an odd bright yellow jacket with standard blue jeans. His hair was gelled back and a light brown, skin fair. I didn't recognize him, but there were few people I bothered to actually take note of (and most were just exceptionally attractive women).

"What?" I was curt, but, this was a world I intended to escape from. Idle chatter was obviously detrimental to that cause.

The man slipped his hands into his pockets casually yet his expression contrasted the action. His brow was furrowed and his gaze serious. It was unnerving yet at the same time I appreciated it. Many people were trying to make light of the situation and that expression alone was enough to show me that this man understood the reality.

"There's going to be a meeting in the square about Treevine Forest,"

"Why's that?" Apparently that was the wrong question to ask, as the man grit his teeth an gave me a glare.

"You…didn't you hear the population statement this morning? We've lost one thousand to the wild pokemon in that forest," My eyes widened a bit. I had heard the population statement; they were announced across Linus via monotone voice every morning at eight a.m. What I didn't know was that the most recent drop was due to ventures through Treevine forest.

"…I didn't know that," The forest had taken lives since day one, but not many had started venturing into it until the tenth day. People were getting stronger and more confident so they had decided it would be fine to just clear the forest in one attempt. I guessed that none of them managed to make it and, if some did, it was few at best.

The man nodded before he gestured in the direction that New Castelia City square was. "That's why we're holding a meeting. We're going to need to come together and create a plan if we want to get to the next town,"

The next town. According to the "Town Map" I had bought at the mart that was known as "New Oldale Town". It was barely out of Treevine Forest yet still a safe zone much like New Castelia was.

"Fair enough," I decided with a nod. If a thousand people were killed within two days due to whatever lurked in Treevine Forest then, whether I liked it or not, a group plan was probably best. Also…working in a group didn't seem like such a bad idea. Not since I had met Axel two days prior.

The man's glare finally let up and he gave me a nod. "Then be there within the hour. My name is Zeus, by the way,"

"Red," I replied with a nod.

* * *

The square was not as filled as I would have imagined. I wasn't sure if it was just Zeus that had gone around and promoting the meeting, but there was only about a hundred people who stood in the square by one p.m., two hundred at best.

I leaned against a tree that was planted near the outskirts of the square's center. Most of the crowd stood in a circle around the center but from where I stood I could see clearly enough. It wasn't long before Zeus stepped into the center and gazed around the crowd. He had a clearly disappointed look on his face, couldn't really blame him for that.

"Thank you for all that came. As you know, Treevine Forest is a hurdle that we trainers have yet to conquer. From what I've heard about the forest, and I'm sure you've all heard it too, is that plenty of grass and bug types are seen there along with flying and poison types," I did know this. The grass types would be a pain for Thor but Thunderwave would slow them down sufficiently.

"I propose that we send a team to work their way through the forest together, clearing a path for the rest of us and hopefully others that decide to follow through," Typical mutterings followed this statement. It was a fair enough plan, but the problem lay with trust. Who would we all trust enough to form this team up? And who all trusted Zeus enough to follow the plan?

I couldn't say I did. Zeus seemed concerned about everyone as a whole, but, Linus was clearly a world where the only person that mattered was yourself. Only _one _person could become the champion. even if that would free everyone we still had crawl over each other to do so.

"All right, but how many people should make up this team?" A young woman spoke up this time. My gaze flicked to her and almost immediately I recognized her from a training session on Route 1. She had pale blond hair and similarly pale skin, wearing a simple dark pink long-sleeved shirt and dark blue skinny jeans. "Too large a party and the forest will spawn too many wild pokemon for us to deal with. Too small and progress won't go well,"

"Ten should be good…"

"No, too many. How about four?"

"Everyone, please," Zeus' hands were in the air now, as he attempted to silence the onslaught of suggestions likely before arguments broke out. It worked well enough so Zeus was able to reply to the girl, "A group of six should suffice. If it works for a party of pokemon on a trainer it should work for a group of trainers then," Again, fair enough logic. Even if one didn't agree with it you could see where Zeus was coming from. I briefly wondered if Zeus was the leader of his own group…but if he was then why wouldn't he suggest his team be on the vanguard?

"And who exactly is going to be on this team? It should be trainers with high leveled pokemon and, preferably, two or more on their team," the girl suggested. There was some mumbling, more nervous this time around. Even from where I stood I could hear people making excuses to themselves as to why they couldn't head this operation.

Eventually, I ran out of patience.

"I'll run with the vanguard," I stated loudly as I stepped towards the square. Everyone's eyes fell upon me but I did my best to keep my cool. Something about a crowd staring at me was a little nerve-wracking but tolerable, almost enjoyable. "I only have one pokemon, but he's high-leveled,"

"You mean _it's_ high leveled," I couldn't help but glare at the guy who said that. He stepped towards me from the crowd with a straight-as-stone expression on his face, "These pokemon are just bits of data. It's best to remember that,"

"Or they could be trapped here, just like us," I retorted, unable to hold back some of the bite in my tone. The tanned skinned teen shook his head before he turned to Zeus.

"Whatever. I'll sign on for this too. The sooner Treevine Forest is fully explored and cleared the closer we get to the first gym,"

"I'll join too, then," The blonde girl from earlier spoke up as well, moving to stand over beside the tanned teen and I, "My name is Sigrun, by the way,"

"Gregory," answered the tanned one. Everyone looked to me, my fellow volunteers included, and I heaved a small sigh. I didn't want my name to get around because, as far as I was concerned, it meant potentially increasing the number of trainer challenges I'd receive in the city.

"I go by Red," I answered, not bothering to hide my reluctance. Zeus nodded and stepped down from his podium to join the three of us.

"You all know that I am Zeus, and I'll be joining these three,"

"Ha! Likewise," A somewhat older woman, likely in her late twenties or earlier thirties, walked out from the crowd as well. To my surprise she wore a rather expensive fur coat and had her wavy brown hair styled too. It was possible to stylize your hair but, like the more expensive outfits, very few bothered to waste their money, "I'd be happy to lend my services. You can call me Rosa"

The five of us looked out at the crowd now, waiting for the final volunteer. To my chagrin it seemed that most trainers were very unsure. Then again there were three types of people that survived the first week of Linus; those too afraid to die, those that rejected the reality and tried to live as normal, and those that were willing to fight. The latter was by far the smallest group.

"Uh…I guess I'll go too then," And much as I hated those that were afraid to press on, there were some that I wished would stay back. The boy who came forth from the crowd, nervously glancing side to side as he did so, was one of them. He couldn't have been a day older than fourteen, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. "My name is Ultrax,"

"What do you think Zeus, good enough for the assignment?" Sigrun asked curiously. Zeus gave a reluctant glance towards Ultrax, who practically crept his way over to us, but nodded in the end.

"We'll get the job done. Stock up at the mart and head to the Pokémon Center if you have to. I want to head out to the forest within one hour,"

I had no reason to stop by either the mart or the Pokémon Center so I was the first one to wait outside of the forest's borders. There were trees along Route 1 but it was mostly short grass with patches of taller grass, the dirt path that ran through it was straight as an arrow. Treevine Forest had taller trees and was thick with them, the path curving even as it entered the forest. It wouldn't be a straight run through and would probably take hours if not a day to clear.

So there I sat, staring down the path and into the forest. Every moment that passed as I stared only manage to increase the fear and dread I felt towards the assignment. A thousand trainers in the past two days had died in the forest, and the weakest and likely least intelligent trainers had been wiped out in the first ten days. There was clearly something powerful in the forest, be it a pokemon or some kind of trap set by the creators of Linus, and I was not looking forward to facing it.

"Red," I looked over my shoulder and nodded at Sigrun, who had walked up behind me. She had finished her preparations first, it seemed. "How are you?"

"As good as one can be, given the circumstances," I replied, trying my best not to sound as grim as I felt. It obviously didn't work and Sigrun looked a bit put off, but she nodded and sat down beside me.

"I guess I can't blame you. This has been hell,"

"And it'll only get worse. Whatever's in this forest isn't going to be fun…" I let myself trail off, not wanting the subject to stay on such a dark path. She and I both knew the risks that were ahead of us, there was no need to idly discuss them. I couldn't actually think of something say, so I was thankful when Sigrun started a new topic.

"So what pokemon do you have? Was I right in hearing that you said you only had one?" Reasonable questions, especially since we would be watching each other's backs. Ever since the Axel incident, however, I was a touch nervous about sharing information like that. In the end I gave in.

"Thor, my elekid. He is my only pokemon," My hand brushed Thor's pokeball as I answered.

"An elekid? Neat…mine is Glacia, a snorunt, and Tigger, my lilipup," Snorunt? It was a fairly rare ice type capable of evolving into glalie or, if female, a froslass. I didn't know how exactly, as snorunt weren't common in Unova and I never heard much on them, but I did know that much. As for lilipup, they were common but reliable normal types in the Unova region. Strong, sturdy, loyal and fast, but it was rare to see one truly excel in either area.

There was silence again as Sigrun took a seat beside me. It was no longer that I couldn't come up with a topic so much that I realized I wasn't in a talking mood. I had to stay focused on what was to come, otherwise I'd lose Thor. And if I lost Thor…

"Can I share a secret with you, Red?" I looked over at Sigrun and saw that she was looking right at me. With a blink I gave her a nod, so she continued; "I'm really scared. I've already come so close to losing battles against wild pokemon, but…I know we have to press on,"

Either I had a knack for drawing in personal discussions with strangers or it was just the only way people could handle the situation. Axel had felt the need to talk to me when I know I showed minimal interest at first. It must have been the fear, that we were so close to death for every second we were outside of safe zones.

"I think we're all scared, at least a little," I replied before looking at the forest again, "And…if it makes you feel any better, I've had to retreat several times these past twelve days,"

"Was your pokemon close to death?" Obviously she needed to know if she was the only one that tasted that fear of ultimate failure. I don't know why she thought she was, for I was certain that everyone who bothered to try to become strong had undoubtedly been in her situation at least once.

Myself included.

"Yes. It was a critical hit, but he managed to survive with a bit of his health bar," Somehow Sigrun relaxed a bit, or she at least gave a sigh.

"Okay…I know it sounds bad, but, I didn't want to be the only one,"

"That's selfish," I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Gregory had arrived. Behind him were the other three members of our party, including Zeus, "I understand what you mean, but it's selfish to hope that others have failed as you have,"

I frowned a bit at Gregory but I held my tongue. He was just being brutally honest, something I did often, but even I knew it wasn't the best time for it. Sigrun looked away before standing up and nodding, driven to silence due to Gregory's comment. I followed suit and resumed my mental preparation. Every detail in that forest was crucial if I wanted to survive through it.

"I assume everyone is ready, then?" Zeus asked. The five of us nodded and Zeus walked past us to enter the forest, "Let's not hesitate, then,"

Six of us were going in. That number wouldn't be the same by the end of it.


End file.
